An Anticlimactic End
by Lord Talon McClaw
Summary: For all the schemes, plots, and plans it all comes down to blood. The very essence both sides of the war are fighting over will hold the very key to Harry Potter's victory. ONE-SHOT.


Gringotts – July 31st, 1997

Harry stumbled drunkenly out of his Gringotts account manager's office and almost fell into the arms of Moody, Tonks, and Remus. It was immediately apparent that they believed him to have been attacked or poisoned as the two aurors began casting a number of diagnostic and unneeded healing spells. Remus grabbed Harry by the shoulders and began to shift him onto the chairs the three waiting had just been occupying. Torn between staying to make sure Harry was alright and rushing off to find help, Remus only barely noticed that Harry was trying to speak.

"What was that? Harry, what did you say? What happened?" Remus' gentle voice cut through the continued spell casting of Tonks and Moody.

"He's dead… He's dead." Harry's voice barely carried to the warewolf's ears it was so quiet, but immediately all three of the older adults froze and met Harry's vacant stare with varying levels of concern.

"Who's dead Harry? Who?" Came Tonk's voice filled with no little about of apprehension.

Harry took a shaky breath before turning and meeting her eye, just barely bringing his own into focus.

"Voldemort. Voldemort is dead."

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Voldemort was dead.

The war was over.

Sitting next to his Order of the Phoenix guard Harry could hardly believe it himself as he told them how'd it happen. Even he couldn't believe _exactly_ how easy it had been.

It had all started with a letter from Gringotts that had arrived at his bedroom in Number 4 Privet Drive via eagle owl the week before his birthday. As he was turning seventeen and becoming an adult in the wizarding world, it was time that he went over his complete inheritances with a Gringotts account manager.

While they had requested his presence as soon as possible once he turned seventeen, it had at first appeared as though he wasn't going to be able to go until after school started because of security concerns. Moody and Shacklebolt were both concerned that Harry could be intercepted on the way to or back from the bank. It was actually Lupin who argued that Harry had a right to review what Lily and James Potter had left him as soon as he wanted.

It ended up being close to an all-out row between different Order members in the sitting room of the Dursely's home, who at the time had all been cowering in the kitchen pretending there wasn't a dozen "freaks" arguing on the other side of the wall.

It wasn't until Bill promised to get not only a secured goblin-made portkey, but also a promise from Gringotts to protect Harry and his escort while dealing with bank business that it was decided Harry would go to the bank just before midnight the night of his birthday. Only he and his small escort would be in the home to ensure no one else would be in danger when the wards around the house fell.

And so it was that Harry entered the office of his Gringotts appointed account manager at 12:01 AM on the day of his seventeenth birthday.

The first order of business had been a simple identity check via a drop or two of Harry's blood and an enchanted parchment, which had glowed with the words _Lord Harry James Potter-Black_ as soon the blood touched it.

This of course led to an explanation that while the Potter family held no hereditary titles, the Black family, having been granted the title of _Noble and Most Ancient_ by the sitting English monarch some thousand years previous did hold an Earldom with no place-name, which Harry had inherited when the previous head of house, one Sirius Orion Black, had left all properties and titles belonging to the family to Harry upon his death.

The next two hours was consumed by the review of all holdings of both the Potter and the Black families, both of which were substantial on their own, but combined to form one of the largest single estates in private hands anywhere in the magical world.

Harry was more than a little overwhelmed, but he was also more than a little annoyed that this was the first time he was hearing anything about any of this. The goblin, in the face of a rather angry and incredibly wealthy customer, explained that while Harry was the last of the Potters and the heir apparent to the House of Black, he couldn't become the "Head of House" for either until his majority, and only the Head of House could access or grant access to the family funds as opposed to trust vaults set up for individual family members. The goblin also took some time to show Harry how exactly the bank had both been using and growing the wealth of the Potter and Black accounts during their fifteen years or so of relative inactivity.

It wasn't until the Goblin was reviewing the remaining members of each family and going over Harry's responsibilities to them that everything came to screeching halt.

With a startled gasp, Harry all but ripped the parchment with the Potter family tree out of the Goblin's hands. The tree showed the last few generations of Potters and their cadet branches, all of whom showed their members to be deceased. But there were two names that showed living family members. The first was his own, _Harry James Potter-Black_, with the symbol denoting the paterfamilias next to it. But underneath it, connected to his own with a line denoting a child was…

…Tom Marvolo Riddle.

Harry could but stare at the name in shock and denial for what felt like several years before he was able to pull himself together enough to speak.

"What…? How…? What is _his_ name doing on here?"

The goblin hesitated for only a second in the face of Harry's cold voice. "By rights of blood, the one known as Tom Marvolo Riddle is your child. Did you not sire a son three years ago?"

It took a full minute for the impact of what the goblin said to hit Harry.

_By rights of blood_. _Three years ago_.

A shaken Harry looked up and met the goblin's uncertain eyes. "He took my blood. Voldemort took my blood and used it to create a new body almost three years ago. That makes him my son?!"

While Harry was shouted his latest question, he couldn't help but be impressed that the goblin failed to flinch at the volume of his voice or at the knowledge that apparently _Voldemort_ was now Harry's _son_.

Much to Harry's confusion, rather than flinch or pale or freak out or react in any other predictable manner, the goblin merely grinned in a way that would give a dementor nightmares.

It was quickly explained to Harry that in taking his blood, Voldemort not only created a connection of flesh between the two, but also anchored his magic to Harry and the Houses of Potter and Black. Why this was a good thing was also quickly explained in the face of Harry's horrified expression.

And soon Harry too was grinning in such a way that would give dementors nightmares.

And so, two hours later, Harry, using his powers as head of the family and with the help of several goblins, called upon Potter and Black family magics to judge the one known as Tom Marvolo Riddle (for crimes such as murder of the previous head of house and attempted murder of the house heir apparent) and strip him of _his_ magic before casting him out of both houses.

At first nothing seemed to happen, and although Harry really hadn't known what to expect to have happen anyway, he began to worry that the horcruxes had prevented Voldemort from dying yet again. But in the end they were irrelevant, as a horcrux could only exist if the originator's magic kept it bound to the selected item. No magic meant no horcruxes. And no horcruxes meant no immortality.

The first thing Harry noticed was the headache he'd had since Voldemort's return faded away as well as a mental pressure he hadn't even realized he'd been carrying around most his life. Harry had just a moment or so to bask in this new pain-free existence when different goblins began to rush in.

Another half-hour of much parchment checking and near-screeching in Gobbledygook revealed that in a last ditch effort to keep himself alive, Voldemort had used the dark marks branded onto his followers to drain them of their magic in order to supplement his missing own, killing them in the process.

That's when it hit Harry like the 9:17 freight train from Glasgow. Voldemort was dead. And he had taken all of his marked followers with him. In one night, with just a few words spoken in broken Latin and a couple of signatures, Harry had completely ended the war.

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**AN:** Just a little One-Shot I've thought up in order to segue into a Voldemort-free seventh year. I have a couple such stories in the works and I wrote this to get "the war" over with simply and quickly. It was pointed out that this sort of follows the whole over-done "Harry as an heir" theme, but all truth be told, I needed him to be rich for the stories I'm writing as follow-ups to this story. I tried to temper it a bit by acknowledging that the Potters had no titles (but had enough money to create a well-off trust account for Harry) and by pointing out that the Blacks were in cannon a "Noble and Most Ancient House", a term which is similar to the "The Most Ancient and Most Noble Order of the Thistle", an order of chivalry associated with Scotland - so I figured it would be okay to give the Blacks a title without a place-name (i.e. being the Duke of York or some-such). Thanks to u/ChocolateTeapot for catching my typos and errors.


End file.
